The War In Iraq: Political Militias and Totalitarian Tactics

by John Thompson

03/31/03

Human shields, faked surrenders, ambushes by soldiers in civilian clothing, and security detachments backing conventional troops — the unsavory tactics adopted by Saddam’s "elite" troops have been seen before and their historical antecedents put his regime into clear perspective.

Many of Saddam Hussein’s biographers have noticed that he has closely aped Joseph Stalin in some ways, and the Nationalist-Socialist-Militarist demeanor of his Ba’ath Party has close parallels in Hitler’s Germany. Both Stalin and Hitler were engaged in desperate struggles to protect their regimes (with mixed results) and both resorted to some of the measures that Coalition troops have encountered in the first week of the War in Iraq.

Many Allied veterans of the Second World War have described some of the measures undertaken by members of the Waffen SS. These soldiers were known to sometimes approach Allied positions in civilian clothing and then to unlimber a shower of grenades or to complete a careful reconnaissance. Sometimes, they were known to lure Allied soldiers into the open while offering surrender, only to then open fire on them. None of these tactics were particularly decisive, especially as front-line soldiers have strong survival traits and soon develop an instinct of their own for when a civilian or surrender bid is genuine or not… and react accordingly.

American, British and Canadian soldiers who fought the Waffen SS also soon learned to accord them a different standard of treatment from ordinary German soldiers. The word soon got around in Normandy in 1944 about the shooting of captured Canadians by members of the 12^th SS Hitler Youth Division, and the young Nazis of this division soon became marked men -- only 500 of them staggered out of France, leaving over 12,000 of their comrades dead or wounded behind them. The Iraqi Republican Guard and Fedayeen Saddam should take note.

The parallels between the Fedayeen Saddam and the Hitlerjugend of the 12^th Waffen SS are not inconsiderable as both organizations consist of young men who were carefully selected and indoctrinated to be absolutely ruthless, to subordinate all normal human feelings to an ideology and encouraged in false hero worship. Perhaps a few of the Fedayeen will survive to realize in their latter years just how callously they were used at the behest of a leader who took enormous pains to keep his own hide unscratched.

The apparent use of Ba’ath Political Militia to backstop regular troops has been seen before. In the desperate year after the Germans first invaded the Soviet Union, Stalin sent detachments of NKVD Security Troops (this organization later became known as the KGB) to ‘guard’ every headquarters, thus keeping the generals strongly motivated to engage in pointless resistance.

NKVD security troops also ensured that Soviet soldiers went forward in futile assaults and shot down those who hung back. They were also used to stay in the rear of Red Army formations and shoot their own retreating troops. The Soviets lost some 12 million uniformed men and women in 1941-45 -- more than all other WW-2 Armies combined, and the use of these ‘special’ troops made it possible. For Iraq, this ultimately will be a losing tactic.

The use of human shields has been seen before too, but there is an important distinction to be made. In the enormous 18 hour firefight in Mogadishu in October 1993, the ambushed US Army Rangers soon noticed that there were some Somali women and children who cheerfully concealed Aideed’s militiamen with their own bodies as they sniped at the US troops. Combat is not a game and these voluntary shields were shot too. However, soldiers are less likely to shoot at involuntary shields and will seek to avoid being placed in a situation where they have no choice in the matter. This tactic may work to the Republican Guard’s advantage for a while, but it is not decisive.

Cruelty towards prisoners is also a losing tactic against Western troops. American Forces have been known to go to ferocious lengths to prevent downed airmen from being captured, and there are many examples of the stubbornness of American and British troops when confronted by an enemy with a cruel reputation. Once the word got around on the Japanese Imperial Army in 1942, or on the North Koreans in the summer of 1950, the determination of Western infantry exceeded that usually seen when fighting the Germans. Also, while Westerners are seldom cruel to POWs, our infantry can be very selective about who gets a chance to put their hands up in the first place.

John Thompson is President of the Mackenzie Institute which studies political instability and terrorism. He can be reached at: mackenzieinstitute@bellnet.ca